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KIRKERSVILLE - For the second time in less than a year, the village of Kirkersville is looking for a new police chief. This time, the chief left because he said he couldn't work for the mayor.

Jeff Finley, who was sworn in as department chief in October, resigned Wednesday during the village's council meeting. The department's captain also resigned and Finley said the sergeant plans to resign soon.

Finley had been hired to fill the position of chief after Steven Eric DiSario was killed in the line of duty in May 2017, three weeks after being sworn in as chief.

Finley said his decision was a long time coming.

"The mayor has to be in control of everything," Finley said of Mayor Terry Ashcraft. "It's his way or no way."

Finley said Ashcraft created a "hostile work environment" and said in talking with other former chiefs it appeared Ashcraft had a pattern of behavior.

"I can't work for someone who has no moral code or code of ethics to live by," Finley said. "I was tired of the verbal abuse."

A call to Ashcraft as well as calls to several members of the village's council were not returned by Thursday afternoon.

Finley is not the first Kirkersville Chief to have publicly feuded with Ashcraft. In 2015, former chief William Lawless sued the village and Ashcraft, claiming wrongful termination.

In that lawsuit, Lawless said he believed he was terminated from his position as acting chief after being told he would be given the chief's job because he answered questions from a person who planned to run against Ashcraft for mayor.

Lawless' personnel file had listed his termination but did not provide any documentation as to the reason for his dismissal.

In the 11 years that Ashcraft has been mayor after being elected in 2007, the Kirkersville Police Department has had eight different chiefs.

In 2012, while Ashcraft was mayor, The Advocate reported on a more than 400 percent increase in traffic citations being issued by the Kirkersville Police Department.

Finley said traffic citations were one of the things Ashcraft was upset about.

"If I wasn't going to do my job and enforce the traffic laws like he wanted, he said he would abolish the police department, Finley said. "Eventually it's going to be a done deal with someone when you threaten their job like that."

Ashcraft was also reportedly interviewing people for positions behind Finley's back, putting him in a precarious position when it comes to liability.

"The officers that I had in place were men I trusted and I knew if I wasn't there, they could do the job in my absence," Finley said.

The village's police department is largely a volunteer force. The police chief is a part-time position and is paid for 20 hours a week.

The village's residents were not happy with Finley's decision to leave, he said, and he was disappointed to leave a place he had come to call home and people he had come to call family.

He said he would play basketball in the street with children in the village, encouraging them to call him Jeff instead of Chief, and read at Kirkersville Elementary School when he had a chance.

"I had inserted myself into the community ... and the mayor didn't like when I did that," he said. "I wanted to end my career there and retire there. But I refuse to be walked on. I've got too much pride and respect for what I do to be walked on like that."

Finley said if the current administration was not in power, he would be thrilled to come back as the department's chief.